Chapter 3: Archaic

[Rogue 4]

Maybe it was Layla's wishful thinking, but she wanted the prisoner to be a Revenant. It meant that they were coming here for her. So far she knew that it was male, and considering that Deign hadn't mentioned the prisoner to be nonhuman---something that probably would have been mentioned early, she narrowed the list down to Captain Tunon, Tak, Jaim, Arlan and Kaden. Whoever it was was resisting them, which...she knew was a feat. She used to work for Archaic afterall. Of the five men, she knew that as great of people Arlan and Kaden were, they weren't trained to deal with torture. She wasn't sure if Jaim was, but even if he wasn't he was arrogant enough that he wouldn't let them get information out of him.

Captain Tunon, Jaim Adarra, or Takeshi. She needed to know who it was.

"Well," Layla said with a smile, that she thanked her acting talent for. "I happen to know of a few crime lords and their families. What does this one look like?"

Edited February 5, 2009 by Rogue

[Mara 29]

Clicking his blasters into the "kill" setting, Kaden moved in towards the hangar close to Jaim. Knowing that the other man was a lot better with a blaster than he was--partly from experience, partly from his gut feeling about him--he wanted to stay near him so they could over each other. And so Jaim could pick off the harder targets, he hoped.

Once inside, the two of them sprayed blasterfire in front of them, keeping the guards and others inside the hangar at bay, at least for now. Kaden knew that soon, very soon, more guards would be coming their way. Especially if Jaim was doing most of the accurate shooting. He could just point, shoot and move onto another target before the last one had hit the ground. Kaden, on the other hand, had to aim much more slowly to try to get a good hit on a target. And that was with one blaster in each hand, which didn't seem to be an advantage right now. Remember, don't close your eyes...

Just a few meters inside the entrance, the duo ducked behind a large landspeeder for some temporary cover. Jaim used the opportunity to load up his blasters with new powerpacks. Kaden glanced at his: still 80% full. He tried not to sigh and kept a lookout for more enemies and the rest of his team.

[Chickenman 9]

At the very last moment, Aeric jumped onto, rolled, and scrambled across the parked hovercar's hood. When that last moment was over, the accelerating car slammed into its side. The crash sent both Aeric and his previous cover flying, though to his credit, Aeric flew farther by a good couple of meters.

He landed unceremoniously with a thud. He groaned, the wind knocked out of him. The hovercar kept on coming. With difficulty, Aeric reached over to his belt, and grabbed a thermal detonator. Lazily, he rolled it towards the car. The car unknowingly pressed on, hovering over the explosive. The detonator lived up to its name, exploding and punching right through the car's unprotected floor.

Sighing tiredly, Aeric stood up, dusted himself off, and walked away.

[Drake 53]

Deign thought it over for a second. If he told Layla the facts and she believed him to be a member of her squadron come to save her, she would only become ever more resistant and maybe even make attempts at freeing him. However, Deign had no idea who the prisoner really was. It was a big galaxy and thinking about the odds of such an encounter was something simply not done by a Corellian.

On the other hand, if he avoided the question, she would draw her own conclusions like she always did.

"Well," he said, "He looks like every other crime prince in the galaxy. Ruggedly handsome with a certain charm while still a stuck up pain in the backside. You know...like me."

[Rogue 4]

"Well, at least you had part of that statement right." Layla said, sighing inwardly. His joke didn't give the Zeltron woman any of the information she needed. She would be stuck with these questions on her mind, with no way to act on them. And she had to play nice.

She had to remind herself that she wasn't acting for herself. She was acting to protect the people she'd promised to, her beautiful daughter, and Sena. Sena could be a pain when she wanted...but she was like her younger sister. And she could have strokes of brilliance. Layla couldn't let anything happen to either of them. And she didn't want anyone else caught in the crossfire either.

Layla Nasrin didn't want anyone else to pay for her life choices.

[Bad furday 57]

"Nice work, Captain!" noted Arlan, shouting to be heard above the shriek of blasterfire. Looking up from behind the vehicle he was using for cover, Arlan fired at a guard

scurrying towards what appeared to be a comm station. Obviously, an organization as professional as Archaic would have notified Argos the moment the shooting had started. But then, stopping this guard from reaching the comm certainly wouldn't hurt anything.

Arlan fired again, and the guard dropped to the garage floor.

* * *

Jya lay down a steady hail of blasterfire as she and the rest of the squad moved into the hangar. The floor was pristine white and polished, an unusual choice for someone so allied with the Imperials. In contrast, both ceiling and girders were black, with large floodlights illuminating the hangar deck.

Taking care to avoid hitting Argos' personal spaceyacht, she fired at the approaching guards. Some seemed to still be dazed that someone could attack this, a hangar inside a mountain, covered with a holographic disguise.

A blaster bold sizzled past Jya's shoulder, causing her to roll and take cover behind some storage containers. Looking up, she spotted shadowy figures aiming weapons from a catwalk hung from the hangar rafters. The catwalk blended in so well with the ceiling, none of the others had noticed it.

"Keep a look out above you! There's snipers on the catwalk!" Jya warned the others, shouting to be heard over the screeching din.

Taking aim at one of the snipers, Jya lined him up in her sights and fired.

The man fell to his death with a scream.

[Mara 29]

Eager for new kills, Jaim slowly moved out of the cover of the speeder and forward to some boxes, nearer were the guards were walking along the catwalk. He yelled for Kaden to cover him as he aimed at the men and fired.

While he was busy trying to take out the ambushers hanging from the ceiling, Kaden remained behind his cover, shooting at anyone that he thought had his wingman in his sights. And so he ended up firing seemingly randomly, picking targets that even remotely moved in Jaim's direction, being careful to miss the others of the team and the large starships surrounding them on the sides of the hangar. He managed to hit two guards in the leg, as another sniper fell to his death from Jaim's shot. The other man ducked behind another storage box, before trying his shot again.

[Andy 60]

Aston crouched behind a stack of supply crates watching a pair of doors and firing at anything that came into the garage towards them. He briefly entertained the idea of reaching a console and sealing some of the doors off to better control the influx of hostile reinforcements; but instantly dismissed it as too risky. He also realised he would need to move to a better place of cover before he got pinned down.

[Drake 53]

They reached the office, and Deign entered a code into the door controls. The code combined with a finger print scan, taken while he pressed the keys, unlocked the blast doors. "Go on in," he said, gesturing to the women. "You'll be safe in here."

The circular office was spacious with Deign's large, durasteel desk taking up the centre of the room. It was situated on a raised dias which allowed him to look down on anyone who came before him. Four doors, aside from the entrance, were situated around the room. "The 'fresher is there," Deign said, pointing to the door to the right of the desk. "The two at the back are meeting rooms. There's a holo-board in each if Ayana wants to draw or something. The room on the left is my study and it will remain locked."

[Rogue 4]

Layla opened up the door to one of the meeting rooms, making sure it would be safe in there before looking to Sena. "Sena, babe, take Ayana in there to color."

"Mommy?" Ayana asked her, her little face tilting to the side in curiousity. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing sweetie." She said, giving her a kiss before passing her to Sena. "You know what would make mommy happy?" The three year old half-Zeltron shook her head. "Can you draw me a few pretty pictures? That would make me happy."

She nodded enthusiastically as Sena took her into the meeting room. Once they were gone, Layla sighed, walking over and sitting on the edge of his desk. "Thank you for letting them head back there." Whatever happened, if anyone crossed through that door, she didn't want her baby to be in the line of fire.

[Drake 53]

Deign smiled as he entered another code to lock the door. "She is my daughter as well. I would never allow any harm to come to her." She would make a wonderful heir... he thought.

He moved around behind his desk and sat down. Turning on the displays, Deign switched to holocam feeds from the hangar and garage. The cams close to the attackers had already been shot out so the clarity of their identities was impossible to pick up from the more distant views.

"They certainly know what they're doing," Deign said, absently. "Such methodical work is uncommon in many criminal groups."

[Rogue 4]

"Oh?" Layla asked absently, shooting a sparing glance over at the camera, her back still turned to him. "What's so special about these ones?"

[Drake 53]

"I just said that they're methodical and know what they're doing," he shook his head and tried to find a better angle. "If we can spot the leader..."

[Rogue 4]

"Press forward!" Nat yelled over the noise in the hanger. He looked to Szen. "If we get that door closed, it will give us time to clean up here and regroup." There was a raised level on the right side of the hanger where the controls were kept. "We're going for it. You get the doors closed and I'll cover you."

Before she could respond, he threw a grenade to clear a path, grabbed her shoulder and pulled her further down behind cover.

When the fire began to clear, they began to move, staying behind cover as much as he could.

------

Layla hesitantly looked back over her shoulder to see what was on the feeds. "Any luck?"

[Drake 53]

"Hmmm," was all Deign said. The group in the hangar was pressing forward, giving him a better look at them. He zoomed one holocam in on a man who looked to be a Twi'lek. With him was a woman with black hair and something on her face. Possibly some kind of prosthetic.

The Twi'lek was shouting at the others and making hand gestures. "I think we found the one in charge," said Deign. He opened a commlink to his own man in charge in the hangar. "The blue Twi'lek is your priority target. Kill him and bring me his headtails."

On the other screen, a large Trianii woman threw one of his men into the holocam, turning it to static.

Deign glanced over at Layla.

[Rogue 4]

Layla had a good idea that if he got injured rescuing her, Lieutenant Blueberry was probably going to make her life a living hell. For reasons beyond that, she was praying that he didn't get injured. She didn't want any of them to get injured, didn't want any of them to be targetted. The truth was, they were all going to be targetted, in every mission that they undertook. They all knew exactly what that meant when they signed up.

The truth was, Layla would be down there fighting with them if anyone in the squadron was in her place. And she would be fighting her hardest. But she didn't want anyone to have to fight for her.

Wanting something didn't exactly make it true though. She wanted the Empire to fall, she wanted persecution against near and nonhumans to end. She wanted her daughter to have a normal life. She wanted her to have a loving, responsible father.

Moons would probably fall from the sky before that last one happened.

A slight smirk twinged her pink lips when she saw Atuarre lift up one of Deign's cronies and throw him into the cam. That was her wingmate! Give them hell, girl! "Seems to me your men aren't doing as well as you hoped."

[Drake 53]

"Yes, so it would seem," Deign said. "And you seem awfully happy with the death of the men giving their lives to protect us." He scrolled through a menu of holocam feeds from around the base, finally calling up one of a man in a bacta tank in the medbay. "Now let's take a look at how their target is doing."

***

Takeshi had been awake for several minutes already. He was somewhat lucid but fully aware of his surroundings. At the moment, he was suspended in a bacta tank and stripped down to his undergarments. His body still ached, through it had lessened considerably, and the stab wound in his leg had become a dull throbbing ache. Through half-lidded eyes, Tak could make out two guards stationed at the exit and a 2-1B med-droid moving past the tank. It stopped at a nearby bed to treat another patient. From what Tak could see, the medbay was getting some company. At that moment, two Archaic men entered, one helping the other along. The injured one appeared to have a few blaster wounds and a broken leg.

Back-up, he thought, smiling as much as he could around the breathing apparatus. About time.

Edited February 11, 2009 by Drake

[Mara 29]

Hearing the lieutenant call out and not knowing where Jaim had gone to during the continuing firefight, Kaden moved forward as quickly as he could without drawing too much attention to himself. Luckily, though, the odds had started to move closer to even with even more dead or wounded guards scattered around the hangar floor.

He scattered fire and even had to duck down behind a crate to swap in a new powerpack. If only most of those shots had actually hit something solid and done some damage, Kaden would have been happier. Even so, he was surprised that he was hitting as many marks as he was, not giving himself long to aim and shoot at something. Rearmed, he moved forward in a crouch, staying behind as much cover as possible.

Looking up, the guards on the catwalk were gone. Run away scared or fallen to their deaths, he didn't know. He was about to look away to see how close he was to the space yacht when something glinted in the corner of his eye. Kaden turned his eyes towards the object. A holocam! In a moment of inspiration, he leveled his blaster up and shot at it, destroying the cam on his second try. It wasn't a body, but he felt it would help.

[Rogue 4]

It wasn't until Deign zoomed the cam in that Layla could see exactly who was in the tank. She felt her heart stop. That was Takeshi, floating in bacta. Her beautiful Takeshi....for Archaic to put him in a tank, they must have done a number on him. Her own small injuries forgotten, she let her fist clench, straining her hurt wrist in the process. She didn't care.

She was going to kill whoever had done that, should she happen to get her hands on them.

Still, another guilty part of Layla took the blame upon herself. What she wouldn't do to have him be alright.

[Drake 53]

Deign knew Layla. He could see the hurt and anger in her eyes no matter how hard she tried to hide it. That prisoner and the people come to save him were no criminals. They were Layla's Revenant Squadron come to save her afterall. Everything was finally falling into place.

"He seems to be healing rather well," Deign said. After a pause, he added, "Especially considering the beating we gave him." He smirked. "That's where I went earlier after charging up your loading ramp...so to speak." Deign let out a laugh.

Edited February 11, 2009 by Drake

[Rogue 4]

Her gray eyes flared as she turned to look at him, her ears poisoned by a laugh that she once loved. A laugh that now held too much corruption, too much arrogant loathing for her to be able to stand. He ...and this is all a game to him, and...! Layla couldn't remember the last time she had been so furious. She hadn't even fully realized her intent to hurt him until her fist connected with his jaw. "You fragging---"

[Drake 53]

Deign knew the blow was coming even before she took the swing. He rolled his head with it but that only lessened the pain. He laughed again as he turned back to face Layla. "Let's not do that again, okay?" He pressed a button on his console, activating the security field. It was normally used for incapacitating disgruntled employees or traitorous business partners who tried to attack Deign. This time was really no different. The metal desk top blazed with a blue static field, which delivered a powerful shock into Layla's body.

She jerked as all the muscles in her body clenched and spasmed. Layla flopped to the floor and Deign couldn't help but chuckle again. He got up from his seat, walked over to the room where Sena and Ayana were, and entered a code to lock the door.

Looking back to Layla, he could see that she was still conscious, albeit unable to move. "I didn't know until just now, you realize," he said, walking back to her prone form. "About your friends, that is." He kicked Layla in the stomach then reached down and hauled her to her feet. "So, who is the one in the tank then? Your new shag, Takeshi?" Deign dropped her into his chair and took a pair of restraints from one of the drawers. He shackled her wrists to the arms of the seat and locked it into place so she was facing the display screens. "Don't worry, lover. I'll give you a wonderful show yet."

He laughed once more, letting all the frustration and madness flow out of him.

[Rogue 4]

The world was still spinning for Layla as she tried to focus her gray eyes on him. "Let's not kid ourselves, all of this fanfare is because I'm not your lover anymore, Deign." She tried to pull herself out of the restraints, but only managed to strain her wrist some more. She'd be damned though, if she couldn't hurt him physically for all this, she would wound him.

Her eyes met his as she spat out, "If I hadn't been trying to grease the servos enough to protect the girls, you wouldn't even be worthy of a connect disconnect anymore, you bucket head wannabee!"

Her pink lips curled a bit in a smirk as she said, "Oh, and Deign? In case you were wondering... Takeshi's a better lover than you could ever dream of being."

[Drake 53]

Deign grinned and backhanded her across the face. "It's amusing because I can't seem to care about you or the things you say anymore. I thought that, perhaps, by bringing you here, I could spark something we once had. It's a shame that there is no feeling left for you. You were such a good minion."

He paused and smiled, moving behind her and running a hand through her hair, making sure to pull it a little too hard. "No. You are useless to me now...except. Well, there is one good thing that you have left me with. My daughter."

[Chickenman 9]

Aeric poured some suppressing fire into the last strongpoint that the Archaic guards were holding onto for dear life. Quite literally.

"Two, see if you can access the entrance controls from that checkpoint. If you can, seal all the doors leading in and out of this garage. Eight, let's give Aston some suppressing fire!" Fired poured into the strongpoint, and either Aeric or Nima scored a lucky shot and took down a guard. That left one left, but he was dug in. "Four, we can't hit that nerfherder from this range. Be a dear and kill him in cold blood, would you?" As Atuarre maneuvered to get a shot, a squad of Archaic guards were making their way to the corridor that Aeric, Nima and Atuarre shared the entrance of. Nima and Aeric turned to combat the new threat.

"Great," muttered Aeric, ducking into an alcove to reload, "and here I thought this was going to be boring."

***

Cale and a squad of Archaic's elite thugs found the hangar door sealed tighter than a bank vault. Cale reflected that that was a bad analogy, what with the bankers Archaic dealt with.

"It'll take a few minutes to burn this door open, sir. A standard det isn't up to the job."

Cale mind wandered again. He started developing a plan, and in a far-off corner of his mind admonished himself for watching too many action holos.

"Belay that." He fired a single bolt into a nearby ventilation shaft. "We'll take the vents and strike them from behind. Catch these guys with their flanks exposed." Cale lead the way by climbing into the shaft first. "This time we're not commandos, we're a firing squad."